Tag Archives: Bill Barr

Will Durham Probe Produce a Guilty Plea?

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by Daveda Gruber

U.S. Attorney John Durham has made progress in his investigation. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith will plead guilty to making a false statement.

Referred for potential prosecution by the Justice inspector general’s office, Clinesmith was accused, although not by name, of altering an email about former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to say that he was “not a source” for another government agency.

Page has said that he was a source for the CIA which led to the DOJ relying on that contention as it submitted a third and final renewal application in 2017 to eavesdrop on Page.

The renewal application to spy or eavesdrop, whichever way you see it,  was made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Clinesmith’s attorney, Justin Shur, told The Associated Press that Clinesmith is being charged in federal court in Washington and is expected to plead guilty to one count of making a false statement.

Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General Bill Barr, to investigate the origins of the FBI’s original Russia probe. He was appointed shortly after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller completed his years long investigation into whether his campaign colluded with the Russians (Russia Hoax) to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Durham was focused on the timeline starting July 2016, when the FBI’s original Russia probe began and it continued through the appointment of Mueller in May 2017.

Barr said on FOX’s “Hannity” that “There are two different things going on. I said the American people need to know what actually happened, we need to get the story of what happened in 2016 and ’17 out. That will be done.”

Barr went on to say that “if people crossed the line, if people involved in that activity violated criminal law, they will be charged.”

He also said Durham as an “independent” and “highly experienced” man, and said that his investigation is “pursuing apace,” in spite of delays that he blamed partially on the coronavirus pandemic.

Most of us saw that the Mueller investigation came up with no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election. That point was made as clear as possible considering where it came from.

Mueller’s report did, however, leave open whether Trump obstructed justice.

You’d think after years of investigating, they could have closed that up with substantial evidence to back it up.

Biden and Comey Among Officials Unmasked:

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by Daveda Gruber:

During the presidential transition period a list of names of top Obama administration officials allegedly requested to “unmask” the identity of General Michael Flynn.

Declassification of the list of the notorious development was made by Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.

The list was then sent to Attorney General Bill Barr and GOP Senators Chuck Grassley, R-IA., and Ron Johnson, R-WI., who then made the documents public.

The list is long and includes former Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden isn’t the only interesting name on the list. In fact there are quite a few. Here are a couple:

Former FBI Director James Comey

Former CIA Director John Brennan

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper

Former President Barrack Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough

The entire list can be seen here:

The declassified list shows officials who may have received Lt. General Flynn’s identity in response to a request processed between  November 8, 2016 and January 31, 2017 to unmask any identity that had been generically referred to in an NSA foreign intelligence report.

The document said, “Each individual was an authorized recipient of the original report and the unmasking was approved through NSA’s standard process, which includes a review of the justification for the request. Only certain personnel are authorized to submit unmasking requests into the NSA system. In this case, 16 authorized individuals requested unmasking for [REDACTED] different NSA intelligence reports for select identified principals.”

The document also said, “While the principals are identified below, we cannot confirm they saw the unmasked information. This response does not include any requests outside of the specified time-frame.”

Grenell wrote to GOP senators and included the list. He wrote, “I declassified the enclosed document, which I am providing to you for your situational awareness.”

The decision had already been made by Grenell to declassify information that he had uncovered about the Obama administration officials who were involved in the “unmasking” of former national security adviser Flynn.

Not only do Trump supporters, myself included, feel that Flynn was dishonestly targeted and that the Obama administration had top level officials involved to bring Flynn down because of his loyalty to President Trump and to the United States.

I would assume that Biden was unaware of what was actually uncovered when he told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” that he knew “nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn.”

Biden called the topic a “diversion” from the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden had a little more information and made his statement clearer by saying, “I thought you asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted. I’m sorry. … I was aware that there was . . . that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it, and I don’t think anything else.”

He doesn’t think there was anything else? Actually, I believe has a thinking problem and that fact is coming closer and closer into light.

If the investigation goes into place as I feel it will, Biden may have to testify to Congress.

Will he claim forgetfulness?

Get your popcorn ready. This show is about to get rather interesting.

Who’s Picking Up the Barr Bill?

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by Daveda Gruber:

Friday night brought with it great displeasure for President Trump’s actions from two Democrats. Even though the reality that many Democrats are displeased with Trump at any given point, former CIA Director John Brennan and former DNI James Clapper showed special disdain for Trump leading to the weekend.

Brennan and Clapper came down on Trump for directing Attorney General William Barr to declassify documents related to the surveillance of his campaign during the 2016 election.

Brennan said to MSNBC host Chris Hayes, “I see it as a very, very serious and outrageous move on the part of Mr. Trump, once again, trampling on the statutory authorities of the Director of National Intelligence and the heads of the independent intelligence agencies. And it’s unclear to me what Mr. Barr is actually going to do. Is he investigating a crime? Well, what’s the predication of that crime? Or he is just going to be looking for information… that Mr. Trump can just give to his defenders on the right and cherry-pick information that could be taken out of context?”

Brennan, along with his concerns for exposing “sources and methods” as well as the intelligence of “partners abroad” said, “This is very serious and I know that my former colleagues in the intelligence agencies are looking upon this with great concern and worry.”

Along with his allegations of Trump’s decision being not to their liking, Brennan said he hopes that DNI Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel will “stand up” to President Trump’s “unprecedented act.”

A tweet by Trump may have brought on the extra anger. Trump had tweeted a political cartoon depicting the former CIA Director, former DNI Clapper, and former FBI Director James Comey. Brennan replied to the president’s tweet.

Here is the tweet and response:

Brennan was not alone in his negative verbiage. Clapper was spewing the same verbal garbage. Clapper told Anderson Cooper on CNN that the “bigger issue” is “what exactly is the scope” of the declassification, whether it involves all of Russia’s interference in the election or just the counter-intelligence probe.

Clapper expressed similar concerns as Brennan regarding sources and methods being exposed and putting “people’s lives at risk.”

Clapper is now a CNN analyst. He’s just what CNN needed; more ‘fake reporting’. He still insists that the infamous Steele dossier was not used as sourcing for the intelligence community assessment in January 2017.

I can only give my humble opinion here. Both Clapper and Brennan have never been fans of Trump. Their claims don’t sound kosher to me.

The elephant in the room is that James Comey is in the cartoon, as well. Comey is tweeting about the 2020 election and, of course, “spying” and “treason” were thrown into the mix.

Comey has this to say:

Consider the sources. Honestly, do you trust Brennan, Clapper or Comey? I’ll add; who would? I guess the Democrats love to hear the trash that they drum out.

Most Congressional Democrats have flipped sides on Barr. They used to like him before Trump appointed him. Now, all kinds of investing is happening on both sides of the aisle. The cost will be high but then the Mueller report has cost the American people over $25M so far.

To bring the actual criminals to justice, I’m certain that many would want to pick up this (bar bill) Barr Bill.

My popcorn is bought and ready for me to dig in. The show is about to begin and I’ll be watching closely.

Will John Durham be the Man to Drain the Swamp?

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by Daveda Gruber:

Now that Robert Mueller’s Russian Probe has ended, some are excited to hear the news that an investigation is underway to examine the investigation.

It was a matter of time, but I knew that it would be coming. Attorney General William (Bill) Barr had assigned John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to conduct the inquiry into the alleged misconduct and alleged improper government surveillance on the Trump campaign in 2016.

Also being investigated is if any Democrats were the ones who improperly colluded with foreign actors.

Durham is known as a “hard-charging, bulldog” prosecutor or so sources have called him. He’s been alleged to have been working on his review for weeks now.

The story being revealed is that Barr is working “collaboratively” on the investigation with a few others. They include FBI Director Chris Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.

Durham is working directly with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Horowitz is currently reviewing allegations of misconduct of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants that were issued.  He is also looking into the role of FBI informants during the early stages of the investigation.

Durham will focus on the period before Nov. 7, 2016 which includes the use and assignments of FBI informants and alleged improper issuance of  FISA warrants.

On Tuesday President Trump praised Barr for appointing Durham although he claims that he did not request that Barr do so.

On Tuesday Trump told reporters from the White House lawn, “I think it’s a great thing that he did it. I am so proud of our attorney general that he’s looking into it.”

Barr testified on April 9 and said, “I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation and trying to get my arms around the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted in the summer of 2016.”

Barr had assembled a “team” to investigate the origins of the investigation and it has been alleged that Durham had been working on the investigation for weeks but it is not known if he was part of the original team assembled by Barr last month.

In fact, Barr’s appointment of Durham comes after he testified last month that he believed that “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign in 2016.

Barr said, “I think spying did occur. The question is whether it was adequately predicated…Spying on a political campaign is a big deal.”

Barr did later clarify in the hearing when he said,  “I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred; I’m saying that I am concerned about it and looking into it, that’s all.”

Back to Durham. In his career Durham has led numerous public corruption probes. This includes organized crime, government misconduct and financial  fraud matters.

Durham was appointed by AG Janet Reno in 1999.  He was appointed to investigate law enforcement corruption in Boston. Under AG Eric Holder, Durham was selected to investigate matters relating to the destruction of videotapes by the CIA and the treatment of detainees by the CIA.

On paper Durham looks like the right man for this new investigation. Will Durham be the man to lead to the arrest of those who have escaped justice, so far? Only time will tell but if I were to bet on this, I’d be betting against Democrats at this time.

Maybe the D.C. Swamp will finally start to get drained? I’ll be paying attention.